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the joys of home ownership...

So when we last left our intrepid heroes, they were just getting ready to move... and oh so much has happened since then.

We've had great joy in dealing with the gas company. First, the idiot plumber destroyed the main gas shut off valve for our house, so I had to have the gas utility out to replace it. Well, they couldn't replace it on the first visit... so we had to schedule another, five days later. They replaced the valve and our gas meter on that second visit, but I foolishly decided to run an errand while they were here doing the repair. They finished before I got back, and left the gas turned off... they want to re-light appliance pilot lights after ever gas shutoff... and since I'd never re-lit the pilots on the furnace or the hot water heater, we had to wait for them to return for a "re-light". They were finally able to return 2.5 days later to do that... but discovered that something was wrong with the furnace. After a visit from the HVAC contractor courtesy of our home warranty insurance, it turned out to be a loose wire.

The hot water heater is turning out to be a more troublesome appliance. It started leaking when the gas was off. Another call to the home warranty company summoned a plumber. The plumber immediately looked at our hot water heater and said "we can replace the hot water heater but about $400 in improvements and upgrades will also be required". The words "code violations" were mentioned, in spite of a relatively clean home inspector's report. Some protests to the home warranty company later, and the amount was reduced to $200. The plumbers came back today to install the replacement hot water heater. They performed the necessary upgrades, only to discover that the new unit is taller than the old. This means that the vent flue must be raised... which the plumbers won't do. Theoretically, a more compact hot water heater could be purchased that would fit our flue... but we're not sure if the warranty company will pay for it. If they won't, an HVAC contractor will have to modify the flue and bring it up to code... which means finding a contractor to do the work quickly. The word "asbestos" has also been mentioned. *shudder* In the meanwhile, our old hot water heater has been reconnected... and our water has a slight golden brown hue.

One small silver lining in today's water heater adventure: the plumbers turned off the gas to our house to upgrade the end of the gas pipe for the hot water heater (without telling us... thanks guys). They re-lit the pilot for the hot water heater... but did not for our floor furnace. I had to go into the crawl space and do that myself... which means I now know how to re-light all the appliances in the house. No more re-light appointments with the local utility, thanks.

What else? The cable took two separate visits from the cable company to get right. Our TV was attached as a part of the first visit. We had a picture but no "digital cable" features like a menu or guide. A call the cable company 24 hours later fixed that over the phone, but we traded an online guide for access to any cable channels -- local affiliates came in, but nothing else. A second visit determined that a failing cable under the house was degrading the signal, causing poor reception.

Things have been going fairly well otherwise. We got out of our old apartment as of this past Monday. The box war is slow going, but we're slowly getting our stuff out of boxes. We have the chimney on our house rebuilt, so we can heat our house with fire wood if we want, I suppose... And the roof of the house is in pretty good shape. We've had three contractors up there to look around and all three say that there's nothing that needs attention right away.

Still... I'm looking for dust to settle. I want to get back into every day routine. I don't want to worry about finding contractors... or waiting for contractors to show up. I want to get my head back into my job... and not dealing with tons of details associated with this house. Is that too much to ask?

said drgeek on 2007-10-18 at 9:18 p.m.

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The Wayback Machine - To Infinity And Beyond

those first two estates - 2009-02-04 12:58 p.m.
nativity - 2009-02-03 9:28 p.m.
I am with Brahman - 2009-01-28 9:43 p.m.
angry - 2009-01-25 2:58 p.m.
i am - 2009-01-23 8:33 p.m.